Newspaper Page Text
w^W'"A >^RO > S’W^ii^ , Wrth w I J 1 * 5 a■■ J w> 'W ; T J
fl ■ J flfl ■ B B KI <a fl B ffl K ■ fl ■ Z
K B Jfl fl fl fl B fl I b A fl fl ffl fl fl fl K Z
K Jfl f fl > B - Isl Isl fl Jfl I B fl ■ B ■ Z
K Jfl J B B lfl Isl Isl WKI w fl Jfl f B B■ fl Isl a
fl * flk* -fl - f fl *fl I fls fl* fljfl fl
W * Si g fl f I Isl fli
■f W B ■ IW 1 f~B I B fl B ■ B B I W fl
■ B B *'•F*''l J"B I 1 ■ 118 B ■ 818
... ■• i'Ojprt L’—
T. L. MITCHELL, Publisher.
Vol. 15—No. 2.
For Woman’s Work.
Si SOW’S .
it? IT ET me but feel thy kiss, Love, thou wert ever mine
L<7 And with supernal bliss By a decree divine,
My soul doth £>low! Immutable;
Let me look in thine eyes, Thee have I ever known
jl And in their depths surmise In love’s strange way alone, *
SO That I would know! Inscrutable! SO
Ahl Close within thine arms AB AKh ° f 6h tht T6hl-
What then are life s alarms, To lidht divine! '
What then its rearsr T 3 T , ,T -ii T , K
* _. Be what thou wilt, but be a
To feel thy dear caress Ever and all for
x Is all my hopes to bless, Mine onl „ mine!
Sli And all my tears! Bertha Hoyt Stewart.
& sb sb sb sb <b sb sb sb sb
For Woman’s Work.
I DON’T see why Lizzie doesn’t mar
ry!” said Mrs. Flyndt, speaking of
her niece. “She’s old enough, and
good—good as a girl can be. There’s
not another girl in this town who knows
better how to do all kinds of housework,
and not another one who does so much
for her own folks. All the children
love her. She is healthy and happy.
She may not have what everybody would
call a pretty face, but it fairly glistens
with good nature. Why some smart
fellow doesn’t love her is more than I
can make out.”
“So far as we know she never had a
beau in her life, did she?” asked her
next door neighbor, Mrs. Bearden.
They were talking over the low fence
that separated their yards. Lizzie
Flyndt had just passed by, rolling her
sister’s baby in its carriage. She had
promised her sister to wait for her at the
street corner near the residences of
Mesdanies Flyndt and Bearden. Un
aware that she was to be a subject for
their conversation, she stopped as she
had promised. The corner was out of
sight, but within plain hearing of the
low fence.
“Not one!” replied Mrs. Flyndt.
“The reason must be that she’s too re
ligious,” said Mrs. Bearden. “She reads
a chapter in her Bible every day, regular
ly, my girls tell me. One day they were
all discussing what they’d read. Lily
said, ‘l’ve finished East Lynne. It’s
LIZZIE'S MARRIAGE.
LOVE IS THE ESSENCE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD, THE SPIRIT OF ALL THAT IS ENDURING.
ATHENS, GEORGIA, FEBRUARY, 1902.
just grand.’ Grace said, ‘l’ve begun
David Harum. Isn’t he great!’ Alice
said, ‘l’m in the middle of Lucile. She’s
perfectly splendid.’ Then Lizzie spoke
up and said, as serious as a saint, ‘l’m
reading John now. He’s positively su
perb.’ ”
“I guess it’s that, that stakes her so
good; but still, it doesn’t look as if just
that would keep her from being popular
with intelligent young men,” said Mrs.
Flyndt.
“Well, then, maybe she just doesn’t
intend to marry, and won’t encourage
any one. A girl has to encourage a man
a little before he thinks she is attractive,
you know.”
“For one thing, Lizzie is a little bash
ful, I think,” said Mrs. Flyndt.
“Not in religious matters,” said Mrs.
Bearden. “There’s not a more self
possessed young person in class meet
ing, and everybody says she is the very
life of the Young People’s meetings,
and she offers as good a prayer as the
preacher himself, on prayer-meeting
nights. My land, though, but that
preacher is a likely fellow—the best one
we’ve had since I came to the town.
Speaking of marrying, it’s a pity our
preacher should be a single man,
and all that big parsonage empty.”
“Well, I reckon fate decreed that some
people should not marry,” sighed Mrs.
Flyndt “I declare I must hurry back
to the kitchen or the biscuits will be
burnt to a crust.”
All this time Lizzie was standing help-
lessly at the corner, listening. There
was nothing else to do. Had she moved
away, the shrubbery along the sidewalk
would have hidden her from her sister’s
view. She had tried a few coughs, loud
and warning, but they sounded too
strained and silly, so she stopped. Be
sides, she feared to wake the baby.
Some one else came up just then —the
young pastor—and he heard the conver
sation also. It was too loud and inter
esting to be ignored, he had said with a
silencing gesture when she started, in
desperation, to call aloud to her aunt.
“Really, I am glad of this,” he said
softly, when the voices ceased.
Lizzie blushed and shook her hand
kerchief at a stray fly on the baby’s
forehead. She wondered what he would
think of the equivocal “reading John.”
“Our friends over the fence appear to
be worrying,” he continued, in a voice
scarcely above a whisper; “and. Miss
Lizzie, do you know that I also have
been worrying about that very thing?
That is, I’ve been divided between two
worries; the one lest you should marry,
the other lest you would not. You see,
it would be all right, if you do not choose
the wrong man.”
There was a pause. Lizzie nervously
rolled the baby carriage to and fro, and
looked anywhere but towards the young
man’s face. His searching eyes were
bent on hers.
She gave a little laugh. “Any choice
might be amiss. Sister Nell is a long
time coming.” The first sentence was
somewhat obscure, but the latter was
undisguisedly anxious.
“I think I am the right man,” pur
sued the pastor, earnestly. “I offer my
self to you, here and now, Miss Lizzie.
Didn’t they say something about you
reading John, and finding him superb?
KATE GARLAND, Editress.
50 Cts. per Year.
Perhaps —at any rate, you know that my
name is John. Read me, try me, take
me, please.”
Lizzie looked the picture of confusion.
But she did not refuse promptly, and her
wooer took courage. She listened,
though with evident embarrassment, and
the listening gave him hope.
“Lizzie —Lizzie, I love you. I have
been loving you all the time I’ve known
you. but you gave me no chance to tell
it or to show it, and there’s no knowing
when I could have found courage in the
face of your coldness, if our good sisters
Flyndt and Bearden had not ‘broken
the ice’ and ‘plunged us both into deep
water.’ ”
He paused to take breath, and Lizzie
smiled.
“Give me some encouragement,”
pleaded the pastor. “Give me yourself.
You are smiling, I don’t know whether
you are making fun of me or not, and I
don’t care—if only you’ll promise to
marry me. Place your life in my keep
ing. and I’ll prove myself the right man
for you by a life of devoted, loving ser
vice. Let me call on you—this after
noon, to-night, when? 1 may call ”
“To-morrow, then; in the morning,”
she assented softly.
“Thank you!” he ejaculated fervent
ly. “And I thank God!” he added rev
erently, under his breath.
Lizzie’s sister appeared at that mo
ment, and Lizzie made haste to join her.
A few months later, the parsonage was
cheery with its new furnishings and its
happy young mistress. “I always said
Lizzie would marry well when she did
marry,” said Mrs. Flyndt to her next
door neighbor.
“Andso did I, you remember,” echoed
Mrs. Bearden.
Kate W. Searcy.